No action for the sake of action: I fear that this movie will end up being the opposite extreme of SR because everyone only ever says "more action".

No drawn-out-of-a-hat villains: The story should come first, and the choice of villains should be based on the story. The reason The Dark Knight had the Joker and Two-Face? They suited the themes of the movie. I don't want an entire series of Lex vs. Superman anymore than the rest of you, but if the story calls for him to appear, he should. It's not as if they could easily substitute Toyman for him.

In general, my don'ts are to not make a movie entirely based on making the opposite of what Superman Returns was. Ironically, one bad Superman movie could result in another bad Superman movie in the filmmakers' attempt to get as far away from it as possible. Some of you have a point when you say "pretend the other movies don't exist". Quit thinking about them, trying to be their opposite, because it could end up ruining the new movie.

Do

Escalation: If this is the beginning, there's no reason for robots and aliens and super-beings to already be running around. After all, what would make Superman so special if Earth was already overrun with meta-humans and aliens when he first arrives? Superman should be the first, and indirectly the reason the rest of them come into existence. In some cases, this already applies in the comics. Bizarro is a clone of Superman, Metallo is powered by kryptonite, Parasite was mutated by a substance Superman collected (in his original origin at least).

This also raises the question of where Lex gets all his toys. Whether he's an inventor, scientist, businessman, or all three, it's still Earth-made tech. You have to admit, it just wouldn't be the same if Earth was already on the the technological level of Krypton when Superman first appears. Maybe Lex should reverse-engineer alien tech, be it Kryptonian or Coluan. If not, what inspires him to make a technological and scientific leap of a hundred or possibly a thousand years? I have an idea that he could also base his technology off Superman. A metal based on the molecular structure of Superman's body. An energy weapon based on Superman's heat vision. Anti-gravity tech based on Superman's flight.

Don't shy away from mundane Earth problems and disasters: I want to see what Superman would do if he were in our world, not just the amazing sci-fi fantasy world he inhabits in the comics. Superman facing a devastating natural disaster or foiling a destructive terrorist plot is not boring. He wasn't only created to fight costumed supervillains, but to solve real-world problems no single human could.